THE CIRCUMCISION. TEXT: And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, His name was called Jesus, which was so named of the angel before He was conceived in the womb.St. Luke II. 21. T By the REV. DAVID CLAIBORNE GARRETT, HIS New Year's day is the Feast of the Circumci sion. It seems strange to take the name of a Jewish rite for a Christian festival, and yet behind this clumsy and somewhat technical term, Circumcision, lies a wide domain of thought, even for the Christian. It is this word, and what it stands for in the life of the Christ, that connects the living Church of to-day with the dead Church of the past, the Church of God in Christ with the Church in preparation before the Christ. Two thoughts are suggested by to-day's observance. The first is the fact itself; and the second, the Spiritual Truth behind the fact. First. The Fact. In itself, there is nothing very remarkable about the circumcision of the infant Christ. Like every other male Jewish child, on the eighth day after birth He received the seal of covenant with God. It was all simple and natural, performed, doubtless, in the same humble shelter where the Child was born. As a religious institution, the rite originated at the time Abram, ninety and nine years of age, renewed his cove nant with God. It stood not only for a seal of the inheritance of the land of promise, but as a sign of admission to the Church, and of individual consecration to the service of God. Critics sometimes point out the use of circumcision among the ancient Egyptians as a proof that the Jews borrowed the practice. This is a matter of small consequence. The truth is, that, not only in Egypt as attested by the earliest monumental evidence, but, in many different and widely scattered countries was the rite known. It is not likely that the custom originated with any one people, but more probable that like instincts produced like form, and common causes brought about common practice. Starting even from the time of Abraham and tracing the religious use of the rite, its renewal by Joshua after a disuse of forty years, and remembering its present scientific and hygenic as well as sacramental use, it may well be questioned whether any single custom in the life of man has had a more remarkable history than this. Associated with the life of Christ, the act is invested with more than ordinary interest. Every thing that was done to Jesus, and all that He did in conformity to law, sanitary, national, and ecclesiastical, is indicative of the great principle that, "when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law." The time, and even the place, of His birth were ordered by law. Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem to pay their taxes. The Circumcision denotes the same subjection to law. When eight days were accomplished, not sooner or later, in accordance with the law of the Church the Child was circumcised. What a lesson of obedience to law both human and divine, obedience to the divine will manifested in human institutions! In these days many seem to think it a sign of strength to reject ordinances that have been approved by ages of use. Constitutional religion is not wanted. An institutional Christianity is discarded. A false individualism, manifested by throwing off all allegiance to law, is shown towards the Church as well as the State. There is a spirit of anarchy in relation to religion as well as to government. Learn from Jesus how to live by law as well as to outgrow the need of law by love. See in so simple a rite as circumcision the Son of God conforming to the requirement of the Church, as well as of the nation, in which He was born. Shall smaller souls lightly renounce their religious inheritance, or in foolish. pride feel themselves outgrown the need of institutions that have made them all they are, and given them all they have? At this time "His name was called Jesus." Even so simple a thing as the giving of a name was done by the same method of law. Although announced by the angel at the annunciation, it was not until the circumcision that the name was given with authority. What is there in the giving of a name? Why not name a child in the same off-hand way in which one names some household pet? Or why not let the child wait and choose his own name, just as some advocate the postponement of all religious rite and teaching so as not to bias a child? Because the giving of a name is a solemn act, standing as it does for the individual accountability to God; and a disregard of this and other similar forms is a part of that lawlessness that is rebuked by the whole life of Jesus, from the religous rite at the manger-cradle to the last quiet submission to law on the cross. Why, even on the resurrection morn, Jesus, in the folding of the grave clothes, observed the decency of forms. What circumcision was to the Jewish male child, Baptism is, and more, to all children; the sign of admission to God's kingdom, and an official declaration of their name; and, with the giving of the name, the implication of a personal responsibility. If the Jewish rite meant something in the way of a covenant between the child and God-and who that reads the record of this remarkable race aright, can doubt that it has meant that-how much more does Baptism mean to the children of all races, wherever by land or sea the apostolic commission is fulfilled? Name the child, then, with authority, as Jesus was named. In Baptism, which is circumcision outgrown and made universal, let it be declared of the child with authority that he is God's child, and that his very name stands for the fact of his spiritual sonship. "His name was called Jesus." It is not the name itself however that is so remarkable, although it does mean Deliverer, Preserver, and corresponds with certain Greek words translated salvation and Saviour; for the name, Jesus, was quite a common name, and many others besides the Christ have been called it. Sometimes it was used in the way of interchange with the name Joshua, and Joshua is called Jesus in the New Testament. It is not the name that gives glory to the Man of Nazareth, but it is the Man that illuminates the name. Jesus might still have been a very ordinary name, had it not been the name chosen for the Christ. The same distinction may be applied in familiar ways. Men err in thinking that greatness can be generated by external machinery, such as clothes, house, title, name. A man registers from a great city, and a common fallacy imparts the greatness of the city to the man. A child is given an euphonious or high sounding name, and this is supposed to carry the child into notice, just as certain folk are wont to christen their children with the long, full names of a nation's heroes. A lovely appellation will not make a girl lovely, nor the name of some mighty man make a boy great. "Give him a great name," says one, and "let him live up to it." Rather give the child a great sense of responsibility, and a deep love for duty, and teach him, whatever his name may be, never to disgrace it. As it was with Jesus, so with all men; the man may make the name, but the name will never make the man. A distinguished family may for awhile carry the children on the strength of family name but seldom beyond a single generation. True greatness is not to be found outside of a man himself, but, springing from within, will reflect glory on all without, just as it did with Jesus, who "humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow." Thus, what was given on this day in the simple and natural rite has become imbued with marvellous power. Many, out of symypathy with the Church, and who even scorn the Church, honor the name of Him who "loved the Church and gave Himself for it." At a mass meeting of workingmen, one of the speakers referred to Jesus of Nazareth, and at the mention of the name a thousand hats were tossed in the air, and a thousand voices gave acclaim, "Hurrah for Jesus." The sinner |